>        If anyone is worried about the safety aspect of this,
>don't, the dischrges only last a matter of a few uS whereas in
>order to affect your heart you need a discharge of 10ms or more,
>and i never do discharges 'hand to hand' where the current has
>to flow across my chest. If you see anyone experienced in high
>voltages debugging somehting where there is a possibility of
>electric shock they will ususally keep one hand in their pocket
>or by their side which avoids the possibilty of say, touching the
>grounded case with one hand and contacting live with the other.

I think I would be wary of it anyway thank you. But I do know it is possible
to detect such high voltage by moving the back of a hand close enough to
feel the electrostatic charge attracting the hairs on the back of the hand,
before being close enough to get a discharge.

perhaps this is an area where the female engineers among us are slightly
disadvantaged :)

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